Relative Pronouns — Who, Whose, Whom, Which, That (and Where, When, Why)

Teacher reads 5 sentences, each with a relative clause. Children spot the relative pronoun.

• Read each sentence with the relative pronoun emphasized
• Children point to the matched anchor card
• Affirm each match

Today you meet RELATIVE PRONOUNS — five small but mighty words that let you embed a piece of information about a noun INTO a sentence rather than starting a new sentence. WHO = people, subject of the clause ('the teacher WHO teaches us writing'). WHOSE = possessive ('the student WHOSE backpack is red'). WHOM = people, object of the clause — more formal ('the author WHOM I admire'). WHICH = things, often with a comma for non-restrictive info ('my favorite book, WHICH I read three times, is on the shelf'). THAT = restrictive — the info is REQUIRED to identify the noun, no commas ('the book THAT I read last week'). Plus 3 RELATIVE ADVERBS: WHERE (place — 'the park WHERE we play'), WHEN (time — 'the day WHEN we started'), WHY (reason — 'the reason WHY I believe'). A relative clause adds info without a new sentence. Watch teacher combine two short sentences with each relative.

• Notice WHICH gets commas (non-restrictive — extra info); THAT does NOT (restrictive — required info).

  model WHO: 'The teacher teaches us writing.' + 'The teacher has 10 years of experience.' = 'The teacher who teaches us writing has 10 years of experience.' / WHICH: 'My favorite book is on the shelf.' + 'I read my favorite book three times.' = 'My favorite book, which I read three times, is on the shelf.' / THAT: 'I read a book last week.' + 'It was about honeybees.' = 'The book that I read last week was about honeybees.' / WHERE: 'We play at the park.' + 'The park has a big playground.' = 'The park where we play has a big playground.'

  prompt Teacher combines two short sentences with each relative.

• When do you use WHO vs. THAT?
• Why does WHICH get commas but THAT doesn't?

M-4-F-GR-12-A Chart Physical / non-image

Reproduction of MG-5 at 11x17: 2 columns. LEFT relative pronouns (WHO, WHOSE, WHOM, WHICH, THAT) with use-case label per pronoun; RIGHT relative adverbs (WHERE, WHEN, WHY). Each row has 2 example sentences. Bottom rule about restrictive/non-restrictive comma. Print-ready, dyslexic-friendly font.

MG-5 Chart

Relative-pronoun and relative-adverb anchor: two columns. RELATIVE PRONOUNS (left): WHO (people, subject) — 'The teacher who teaches us writing'; WHOSE (possessive) — 'The student whose backpack is red'; WHOM (people, object — formal) — 'The author whom I admire'; WHICH (things, non-restrictive) — 'My favorite book, which I read three times'; THAT (restrictive — required info) — 'The book that I read last week'. RELATIVE ADVERBS (right): WHERE (place) — 'The park where we play'; WHEN (time) — 'The day when we started'; WHY (reason) — 'The reason why I believe'. Worked example showing each in a sentence. Bottom rule: 'A relative clause adds information about a noun WITHOUT starting a new sentence.' Print-ready 11x17.

• Combine 8 sentence pairs using each of the 8 relatives (5 pronouns + 3 adverbs).

  scaffold Tile kit; MG-5 anchor; pair-combining card
• Take one body paragraph from your essay. Add ONE relative clause to a noun.

  scaffold Relative pronoun card deck

M-4-F-GR-12-B Illustration

Reference image showing two short sentences with an arrow merging them into one combined sentence via a relative clause. Relative pronoun circled. Print-ready 8.5x11.

• Write one sentence with a relative clause about your topic.
• Identify the relative word and the noun it modifies.

• Star your sentence with a relative clause.

• Find one relative clause in a book at home. Write the sentence on a sticky note. Bring tomorrow.